North African billet customers have still been showing interest in purchases of ex-CIS billet. A fresh deal for about 10,000 mt has been done to Tunisia at just slightly above $400/mt CFR (market sources assess the FOB levels at $375-380/mt) recently. The price level is in line with the previous transaction to Algeria at $400/mt CFR and to Libya at $405/mt CFR (including extras), as reported by SteelOrbis earlier this week.
There was a rumor that the $406/mt CFR price has been achieved in another deal for 10,000 mt of ex-CIS billet to Algeria recently, but this information has not been confirmed by the time of publication.
Most major Russian and Ukrainian mills are still offering at $380-385/mt FOB for end of December shipment, the same as last week, but sources said that most customers have been reluctant to accept this price so far.
SteelOrbis’ reference price for ex-CIS billet has increased slightly, by $2.5/mt to $375-380/mt FOB.